tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94332572017-09-24T06:36:07.028-07:00Nothing is as simple as we hope it will beItems of interest in computer and network security, privacy, voting, public policy, etc., plus a few that just tickled my fancy or provoked my outrage.Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.comBlogger500125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-31849799855172609632012-08-22T15:24:00.000-07:002012-08-22T15:37:37.668-07:00Republican Presidents and JobsThe graphics with this New York Times Op-Ed piece are the most direct and convincing evidence I've seen about the effects that Republican Presidents have historically had on jobs, and comparing Bush's results with Obama's. Romney has not given any changes that he would make to Bush's policies, nor criticized them in any way that I am aware of.
http://nyti.ms/NfQshn
Either Romney is lying Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-26141841794721550082012-08-19T17:02:00.001-07:002012-08-22T15:38:08.595-07:00How fast are the very rich getting richer at the expense of the rest of us?It's rather hard to visualize the magnitude of the transfer of wealth that is taking place.
Here are some graphics developed by Forensic Accounting that help in the visualization:
Created by: www.ForensicAccounting.net
Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-21673319242599295772012-01-24T21:52:00.002-08:002012-08-22T15:38:54.938-07:00The first word of "don't be evil" actually matters!Google started its journey towards the dark side back when they bought DoubleClick.
Now the have announced a giant step in that direction.
I've switched search engines and am retiring my Google+ account, and will try to live without Google Maps. I never did trust gmail...Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-38517981185047301122010-03-09T12:50:00.000-08:002012-08-22T15:39:23.731-07:00Chuck Thacker honored by ACM with the A.M. Turing AwardThe A.M Turing Award is the closest thing computer science and information technology have to a Nobel Prize. To my great pleasure, this year the award is going to Chuck Thacker, who designed or strongly influenced many of the machines I used during a very productive part of my career (Maxc, Alto, Dolphin, Dorado, Firefly).
Although Chuck has called himself "a humble purveyor of cycles," the Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-18203349309121719222009-12-14T12:43:00.000-08:002012-08-22T15:40:02.898-07:00The Top 8 Reasons Not to Talk to CopsI found this video to be most fascinating. James Duane, a professor at Regent Law School and a former defense attorney, tells his class why no one should ever agree to be interviewed by the police without their lawyer present. This segment is primarily relevant to those who are innocent and have nothing to hide.A second video gives equal time to a police detective. He basically agrees that Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-69674656733531488732009-08-31T20:49:00.000-07:002009-08-31T20:54:05.605-07:00Must-read piece in Business Week on reviving American research Name an industry that can produce 1 million new, high-paying jobs over the next three years. You can't, because there isn't one. And that's the problem. America needs good jobs, soon. We need 6.7 million just to replace losses from the current recession, then another 10 million to spark demand over the next decade. That's 15 million to 17 million new jobs. In the 1990s, the U.S. economy createdJim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-74950463571278082072009-07-31T23:56:00.000-07:002009-08-01T00:02:38.300-07:00I've left SPARTA, Inc., doing business as Cobham Analytic Solutions.I've parted amicably from SPARTA, and am preparing to join Advanced Elemental Technologies. No, I can't tell you yet what AET does, but I can say that I'm excited about the opportunity.Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-58672168341677818602009-04-11T14:35:00.000-07:002009-04-11T15:36:46.283-07:00CIA agent: Beware mixing votes and electronsAn interesting story by Greg Gordon of McClatchy Newspapers on testimony by CIA agent Steven Stigall to the US Election Assistance Commission.Basically what I'm saying, you heard the old adage, follow the money. Here I follow the vote. And wherever the vote becomes an electron and touches a computer, that's an opportunity for a malicious actor potentially to get into the system and tamper with Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-61740121795480753492009-04-05T01:02:00.000-07:002009-04-05T01:17:49.923-07:00Antarctic ice shelves continue retreatGlobal warming brings more bad news from the Antarctic: Several ice shelves are collapsing, breaking up, or floating away.2009: Wilkins2009: Wordie2009: Northern Larsen2003: Ward Hunt2003: West Antarctic2002: Larsen BRecent Reuters story.Other news stories.Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-49477612555276321942009-03-31T11:33:00.000-07:002009-04-05T01:18:22.743-07:00SPARTA rebranded as CobhamAs of today, my employer, SPARTA, Inc., will be doing business under the Cobham brand. More specifically, it will be known as "SPARTA, Inc., doing business as Cobham Analytic Solutions."My new email address is the same as the old, with "Cobham" substituted for "SPARTA". Telephone remains the same.More about Cobham.Jim HorningSPARTA National Security SectorCobham Analytic Solutions710 Lakeway Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-23740185092015353082009-03-13T16:27:00.000-07:002009-03-13T16:37:07.680-07:00Visualize a trillion dollars; visually compare bailouts.A trillion dollars.How various bailouts and other government budgets compare.It's not so long ago that I was told, "It takes a very big company to lose a billion dollars." Times have changed.Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-88499038224214807242009-03-10T10:26:00.000-07:002012-08-22T15:40:53.137-07:00Barbara Liskov wins A.M. Turing AwardACM has just announced that Barbara Liskov is the winner of this year's A.M. Turing Award, widely considered to be "the Nobel Prize of computing."
I am especially pleased at this award. Barbara is not only a wonderful person, she is the one who introduced me to the concept of abstract data types, and her student, Steve Zilles, introduced me to algebraic specifications. These ideas had a major Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-62710755924665200412008-12-09T13:15:00.000-08:002008-12-09T13:30:19.128-08:00The more you check, the more errors you find.Freedom to Tinker has a good post by Ed Felten on a discovery by the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project, as reported in Wired. Election officials in a small county in California discovered by chance last week that the tabulation software they used to tally votes in this year's general election dropped 197 paper ballots from the totals at one precinct. The system's audit log also Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-37172677783446520132008-12-01T17:17:00.000-08:002008-12-01T17:29:10.775-08:00The Science of VictoryThe US Department of Defense Science & Technology program has released a very effective five-minute video commercial on YouTube, making the case for basic research as a practical necessity, not an optional luxury. The fact that they have a vested interest should not detract from its message.Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-43987764394771923282008-11-30T23:15:00.000-08:002008-11-30T23:29:52.666-08:00The Tan Sox ExplanationThe December 1 issue of The New Yorker has an excellent article by John Cassidy about Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. It contains a brief anecdote that I think provides a pretty good illustration of why George Bush has been able to preside so nonchalantly over the greatest financial debacle of his (or my) lifetime.In June, 2005, Bernanke was sworn in at the Eisenhower Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-57984612899489840182008-11-17T15:00:00.000-08:002008-11-17T15:18:28.363-08:00Computer Science Outside the BoxAlthough the "outside the box" metaphor has become overworked, don't let that stop you from reading Ed Lazowska's post on the CCC Blog. I won't quote from it here, because it's pretty short, and worth reading in its entirety.Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-58284827014206203202008-11-17T14:19:00.000-08:002008-11-17T14:32:58.503-08:00The Laws of IT PhysicsAs found in Congressional testimony titled "Actions to Avoid 'IT' Train-wrecks: An Agenda for Change," by Norm. V. Brown, Executive Director, Center for Program Transformation.Planning is a continuous process, not a one-time event.Complexity kills IT projects since defects and security vulnerabilities increase nonlinearly with increased complexity.Schedules and project chaos create Event HorizonsJim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-12186407814786211112008-11-14T13:10:00.000-08:002008-11-14T16:30:53.951-08:00California Climate Risk and ResponseThe costs of currently predicted climate changes in California over the next century could be as low as $7.3 billion per year, or as high as $46.6 billion per year, according to a new report by two University of California-Berkeley agricultural and resource economics professors. The 127-page report was funded by the nonprofit Next 10 foundation that studies California's future and the Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-77790313780604717582008-11-10T15:52:00.000-08:002008-11-10T16:26:05.435-08:00The "Curb Cuts" approach to computingVery thoughtful blog post on As Your World Changes about how accommodation of various disabilities can benefit us all. Curb cuts for wheelchairs also guide blind persons into street crossings and prevent accidents for baby strollers, bicyclists, skateboarders, and inattentive walkers. The “curb cuts” principle is that removing a barrier for persons with disabilities improves the situation for Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-69741735524488082232008-09-25T11:46:00.001-07:002008-09-25T11:57:54.923-07:00What the "McCain Commission" should ask (and who)Highly relevant Wall Street Journal piece by Thomas Frank: Last week, Republican presidential candidate John McCain called for a commission to "find out what went wrong" on Wall Street. It was an excellent suggestion: Public inquiries into Wall Street practices served the country well in the 1930s.And Mr. McCain has a special advantage to bring to any such investigation -- many of the relevant Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-26158681203010607852008-09-23T22:32:00.001-07:002008-09-23T22:35:53.262-07:00Message to Congress[Text of emails sent to my Senators and Congresswoman.]While I support rapid action to free up the credit markets, I think the suggestions by various Democratic legislators are an essential part of the solution:1) Relief for homeowners who cannot afford the mortgages they got; at least half the money should go to their direct relief.2) A substantial equity position by the US in any financial Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-9213368288140651682008-09-20T22:49:00.000-07:002008-09-21T16:12:31.165-07:00"The economy is fundamentally sound."Déjà vu (history, comments and contemporary quotations):12/31: New York Times Industrials close at 331.JuneNew York Times Industrials gain 52 to close at 391.JulyNew York Times Industrials gain 25 to close at 416.AugustNew York Times Industrials gain 33 to close at 449.September9/3: New York Times Industrials close at 452.In retrospect, the great bull market of the decade comes to an end.9/5: Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-87249318916067279452008-09-15T18:13:00.000-07:002008-09-15T18:20:52.279-07:00Auditing election resultsSpotted in a ComputerWorld article by Grant Gross: The groups, including Common Cause, Verified Voting and the Brennan Center for Justice, called on states to require post-election audits of electronic voting systems, including touch-screen voting machines and optical scan systems. The groups also released a set of recommendations (PDF format) for best practices in election audits...Three Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-74576787248447118032008-09-04T12:00:00.000-07:002008-09-20T23:23:44.705-07:00Privacy policy readabilityMost of us are now exposed to the privacy policies of many companies that we deal with, via annual mailings, clickthrough licenses, or pages on their websites. The cynical among us tend to think that these policies are carefully prepared with the intent that they not be understood.This blog post by Erik Sherman supports the cynics' view.See also this 2005 paper by Annie I. Antón, et al., focusingJim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-59008189313377293622008-08-27T14:01:00.000-07:002008-08-27T14:12:44.049-07:00It's a startGoogle has taken an interesting step in the quest to reverse the decline in students majoring in computer science--especially students in under-represented groups, where the decline is even more precipitous. At a time when more and more digital technologies are becoming indispensable to millions of people, the field of computer science (CS) is in trouble. Enrollment and retention of CS students, Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0